Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 20:13
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, [and] thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
13. Comp. Pro 6:9-11; Pro 19:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Open thine eyes – Be vigilant and active. That is the secret of prosperity.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 13. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty] Sleep, indescribable in its nature, is an indescribable blessing; but how often is it turned into a curse! It is like food; a certain measure of it restores and invigorates exhausted nature; more than that oppresses and destroys life. A lover of sleep is a paltry, insignificant character.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Love not sleep, i.e. immoderate sleep, or sloth, or idleness. Take sleep because necessity requires it, not from any love to it.
Open thine eyes; awake out of sleep, shake off sloth, and betake thyself to thy employment with diligence and rigour.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
13. Activity and diligencecontrasted with sloth (Pro 6:9;Pro 10:11).
lest . . . povertyliterally,”be deprived of inheritance.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty,…. Sleep is a very great natural blessing; it is a gift of God, what nature requires, and is desirable; it is to be loved, though not immoderately; it is sweet to a man, and what he should be thankful for; yet should not indulge himself in to the neglect of the proper business of life; nor to be used but at the proper time for it; for the eye is made for sight, and not for sleep only, as Aben Ezra observes, connecting the words with the preceding; and therefore should not be kept shut and inattentive to business, which must necessarily end in poverty and want; see Pr 6:9; and so spiritual sleep and slothfulness bring on a spiritual poverty in the souls of men, both as to the exercise of grace and the performance of duty;
open thine eyes, [and] thou shall be satisfied with bread; that is, open thine eyes from sleep, awake and keep so, and be sedulous and industrious in the business of thy calling; so shalt thou have a sufficiency of food for thyself and family; see Pr 12:11. It may be applied to awaking out of sleep in a spiritual sense, and to a diligent attendance to duty and the use of means, whereby the souls of men come to be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord, and the fatness of his house; see Eph 5:14.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
13 Love not sleep, lest thou become poor;
Open thine eyes, and have enough to eat.
What is comprehended in the first line here is presented in detail in Pro 6:9-11. The fut. Niph. of , to become poor (cf. Pro 10:4), is formed metaplastically from , Pro 23:21; Pro 30:9, as at 1Sa 2:7; Hitzig compares (Arab.) ryth , which, however, means to loiter or delay, not to come back or down. The R. signifies either to be slack without support (cf. ), or to desire (cf. , Arab. fkyr , properly hiscens , R. , as in , to open widely, which here follows). Regarding the second imper. 13b, vid., Pro 3:4: it has the force of a consequence, Las deine augen wacker sein, So wirstu brots gnug haben (Luth.) [Let thine eyes be open, so shalt thou have bread enough]. With these two proverbs of the eyes, the group beginning with Pro 20:8 rounds itself off.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
13 Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Note, 1. Those that indulge themselves in their ease may expect to want necessaries, which should have been gotten by honest labour. “Therefore, though thou must sleep (nature requires it), yet love not sleep, as those do that hate business. Love not sleep for its own sake, but only as it fits for further work. Love not much sleep, but rather grudge the time that is spent in it, and wish thou couldst live without it, that thou mightest always be employed in some good exercise.” We must allow it to our bodies as men allow it to their servants, because they cannot help it and otherwise they shall have no good of them. Those that love sleep are likely to come to poverty, not only because they lose the time they spend in excess of sleep, but because they contract a listless careless disposition, and are still half asleep, never well awake. 2. Those that stir up themselves to their business may expect to have conveniences: “Open thy eyes, awake and shake off sleep, see how far in the day it is, how thy work wants thee, and how busy others are about thee! And, when thou art awake, look up, look to thy advantages, and do not let slip thy opportunities; apply thy mind closely to thy business and be in care about it. It is the easy condition of a great advantage: Open thy eyes and thou shalt be satisfied with bread; if thou dost not grow rich, yet though shalt have enough, and that is as good as a feast.”
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Sleeping Sluggard
Verse 13 warns that love of excessive sleep leads to poverty and deprives of food. See also comment on verse Pro 20:4 and Pro 19:15.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(13) Open thine eyes.Be up and stirring.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
13. Love not sleep Love it not for itself its ease and indulgence but use it only for the refreshment of nature.
Open thine eyes Be wide awake and diligent.
Thou shalt be satisfied Literally, be satisfied. The imperative is frequently used for the indicative future. Sleep is a great blessing, and needful to health, vigour, and activity; but one may contract the habit of sleeping more than is needful. Some men work with body or mind when they ought to be sleeping. Others sleep when they ought to be working. Judgment, prudence, and self-denial are necessary in this as in other matters. Instead of “Love not sleep,” the Septuagint has, “Love not to speak ill,” etc. Compare Pro 12:11; Pro 19:15.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
v. 13. Love not sleep,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth. There is gold, and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel. Take his garment that is surety for a stranger: and take a pledge of him for a strange woman. Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. Every purpose is established by counsel: and with good advice make war. He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. An inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning; but the end thereof shall not be blessed. Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee. Divers weights are an abomination unto the LORD; and a false balance is not good. Man’s goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?
Nothing can be more important to know, nor needful to have a right conception of, than that all our mercies, both in preparation work and in performing work, are of the Lord. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. Jer 10:23 . And of all the blessed lessons that by grace we are taught, this is among them, that our inability is discovered, and the expediency of receiving strength from the Lord as clearly made known.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Pro 20:13 Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; open thine eyes, [and] thou shalt be satisfied with bread.
Ver. 13. Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty. ] In sleep there is no use either of sight or hearing, or any other sense. And as little is there of the spiritual senses in the sleep of sin. It fared with the good prophet Zec 4:1 as with a drowsy person, who though awake and set to work, yet was ready to sleep at it; and Peter, James, and John, if the spirit hold not up their eyes, may be in danger to fall asleep at their prayers, Mat 26:37-45 and so fall into spiritual poverty: for if prayer stands still, the whole trade of godliness stands still. And a powerless prayer, proceeding from a spirit of sloth, joined with presumption, makes the best men liable to punishment for profaning God’s name, so that he may justly let them fall into some sin, which shall awaken them with smart enough. Pro 19:15 See Trapp on “ Pro 19:15 “
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
come to poverty = become dispossessed. Hebrew. yarash. See note on Pro 6:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Pro 20:13
Pro 20:13
“Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty; Open thine eyes, and thou shalt be satisfied with bread.”
“If you spend your time sleeping, you will be poor. Keep busy and you will have plenty to eat. “What is stated in the first line here is elaborated in Pro 6:9-11. See the comments on those verses.
Pro 20:13. We know that a person can sleep too little for good health. But we can also sleep too much to get the necessary things done. Clark: Sleep…is an indescribable blessing; but how often is it turned into a curse! It is like food: a certain measure of it restores and invigorates exhausted nature; more than that oppresses and destroys life. See Pro 6:9-11; Pro 19:15 also.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Love: Pro 6:9-11, Pro 10:4, Pro 12:11, Pro 13:4, Pro 19:15, Pro 24:30-34, Rom 12:11, 2Th 3:10
open: Jon 1:6, Rom 13:11, 1Co 15:34, Eph 5:14
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 20:13. Love not sleep That is, immoderate sleep, nor sloth, or idleness. Take sleep because necessity requires it, not from any love to it; lest thou come to poverty Lest thou reduce thyself to beggary. Persons that indulge themselves in sleep to excess, not only lose the time which they spend therein, but contract a listless, indolent disposition and habit, and are generally half asleep, or never well awake, and therefore, of course, come to poverty. Open thine eyes Awake out of sleep, shake off sloth, and betake thyself to thy employment with diligence and vigour. Thou shalt be satisfied with bread If thou do not grow rich, yet thou shalt have what is sufficient for the supply of thy own wants, and the wants of those dependant upon thee.